Saturday, 2 March 2013

Avicide

AVICIDE

When the shamelessly avicidal Duck Hunt was released on the Nintendo in 1987, it really was the duck's nuts. For those unfamiliar with 1980s pop culture, Duck Hunt was a game played with a light gun that you actually pointed at the screen of your TV. In the 1980s, this was a pretty big deal! Unfortunately, if wanton avicide wasn't enough to ensure immediate sanction from my mother, the use of a plastic gun that I held in my hand certainly was. Duck Hunt was forbidden, such was the deprivation of my childhood.

Strangely enough, I played Duck Hunt a few years ago on someone's "vintage" console. As I stood blasting pixelated avians out of the sky with a cheap plastic gun, I couldn't help but think my Mum was right to proscribe it. It wasn't a "horrible game" as my mother asserted, but it was a damned boring one.